


"Smile" S10.2: Decoding Doctor Who Season 10 Episodes

by TardisGirlLoveStory



Series: Season 10 Doctor Who [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Analysis, F/M, Meta
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 06:35:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10758735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisGirlLoveStory/pseuds/TardisGirlLoveStory
Summary: This is the continuing work of a multi-chapter handbook and meta analysis for Season 10 of BBC's Doctor Who.  While it's not absolutely necessary to read the previous documents, I do build on the concepts and metaphors explained previously.Season 10 spoiler warnings





	1. Expulsion from Paradise, the Great Work & Ragnarök

**Author's Note:**

> **** Spoiler warning. ****
> 
> Check out my [meta archive on Tumblr](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/meta-archive) for images

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Season 10 spoiler warnings

[[For images, see my tumblr chapter]](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/post/160109738398/ch-1-smile-analysis-doctor-who-s102/)

At the most basic of premises, “Smile” is akin to the 7th Doctor story “The Happiness Patrol,” where sadness is against the law and incurs death by molten candy.  Gratefully, however, “Smile” has a lot more going for it, and the episode ties into so many concepts we’ve been examining, like slavery, the Great Work and the Red stage, and who the subtext says the Doctor is, as well as offering some new, intriguing information.  And once again there are a huge number of references to other episodes, which give us even more pieces of the puzzle.

##  **Major Turning Point for the Doctor**

This episode is signaling a major turning point in the Doctor’s life.  In TRODM, we finally saw the Doctor identify his enemy, as himself, albeit in a single-word admission, so that recognition was a first huge step to a turning point.  However, this turning point in “Smile” is bigger because it pulls in several big references to other episodes in very important ways.  

For example, people on the _Starship UK_ metaphor are waking up because the Doctor is waking up.  Also, the issue of slavery is finally hitting very close to home with the Doctor.  Additionally, there is another reference to David Bowie in this episode at a turning point in his own life.  Moreover, there is a reference to Danny Pink (Doctor) reconciling his mistake and getting redemption.

I’m sure this won’t be the only turning point for the 12th Doctor because we still have the actual canon fall before the rescue, but this is a major turning point for the foreshadowing, which does signal redemption.

##  **More than 3 Faces of the Doctor**

However, most of this happens once the Doctor breaks his oath and leaves Earth with Bill, so the Doctor is being pulled in multiple directions.  In fact, there are at least 5 literal faces of the Doctor in this episode.  Talk about being pulled in different directions!

The Doctor we see in this episode is not the face of the Doctor we see in TRODM.  We are seeing his younger self.  In fact, for the first time, we actually get to see multiple 12th Doctors in the episode at the same time.  However, it’s not in a normal way, but still…  

This image below from when Bill and the Doctor are on the planet is extremely fascinating to me.  The Doctor that we see running through the field is in the large hexagon (red arrow), which makes up the dark side of the light/dark pattern.  There’s the upside-down Doctor (blue arrow), which corresponds to the Eye.  There’s a negative of the Doctor (white arrow), which makes up the light side of the light/dark pattern.  The green arrow most likely is The Ghost.  Then, there’s a disconnected Doctor (yellow arrow), which is filtered, where the Doctor is in red.  There are 3 other hexagons, too, where 2 are projecting off of the ghostly Doctor in the upper right.  The third is disconnected in the bottom left.  So there are 8 hexagons in total, which is a djinni number.  


The disconnected Doctor is most likely the Mother of God or God consciousness.  The Doctor being red suggests the Red stage of the Great Work.  However, he obviously needs an integration to be connected to the rest of the main hexagons.

##  **The Opening: New Eyes**

Right from the start, this episode felt somewhat different than most other episodes.  Usually in the opening scene, we don’t have dialogue starting up immediately.  That took me by surprise because I wasn’t prepared for it.  I do love Bill’s inquisitive nature because it makes me think about the Doctor in new ways.  Things that I’ve taken for granted, like 2 hearts, I now have to rethink in the scheme of things.   Two hearts can be a metaphor for 2 people, and this makes perfect sense, given what we’ve examined. 

In this opening scene, we get an interesting flurry of never-asked questions from Bill, which give us some important subtext.  Bathrooms, steering wheel, cost of TARDIS, seats, etc. are all great questions.  We’ll examine those in a different chapter because there are important references to look at.  However, it’s the strain between the Doctor and Nardole on multiple issues that sets the stage for the turning point.

##  **Tension with Nardole & Darkness Before the Light**

The mood definitely changes in the TARDIS when we hear knocking on the door.  Is this a turning point in the Doctor’s relationship with Nardole at least as far as we’ve seen?  This has got to have broader ramifications in the future.

> **NARDOLE** : (Clears throat) Excuse me.  Just what is the TARDIS doing down here?  
>  **DOCTOR** : I’m over 2000 years old.  I don’t always want to take the stairs.  
>  **NARDOLE** : Your oath, sir.  You’re not supposed to go off-world unless it’s an emergency.  
>  **DOCTOR** : I’m not off-world.  
>  **NARDOLE** : Are you going off-world?  
>  **DOCTOR** : I’m going back to my office.  Could you put the kettle on, please?  
>  **NARDOLE** : (Purses his lips) Mm-hmm.  (He peers around the TARDIS console to see Bill.)  Why is she here?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Because she isn’t anywhere else.  Kettle.  
>  **NARDOLE** : Well…I’m not making any for her.  She can make her own.  I’m not a slave for any human I can assure you.

Nardole’s slave comment is hitting very close to home, as evidenced by the pained look on the Doctor’s face after Nardole leaves.  Is it the humans who have exploited the Doctor and Nardole?  If we go by _The Man Who Fell to Earth_ , it is, but it could just as easily be others.  We know Time Lords have been involved.

####  **The Oath & the Vault**

The Doctor is behaving just like Grant did in TRODM because he’s playing the Grant role, his younger self.  First, Grant used his powers even though he promised not to.  Then, while baby Jennifer was Grant’s responsibility to take care of, Grant was off being a superhero with a baby monitor in hand.  

Like Grant, the Doctor in “Smile” has broken what seems like at least 2 promises.  First, he isn’t supposed to use his TARDIS to go off-world unless it’s an emergency; however, he does.   Second, the Doctor has the responsibility of the Vault and made an oath to guard it, but, like Grant, he’s off being a superhero, so to speak, with psychic paper in hand and the TARDIS.  

By extension of this particular analogy, the baby Jennifer metaphor could represent the contents of the Vault.  

####  **Lying & Addiction to the TARDIS**

Once again, we see the Doctor lying, but this time it’s to Nardole about not going off-world.  While the Doctor would need to keep much of his life spoiler free, and, therefore, lie about some things, he does seem to make an art of lying.  Or at least he tries to.  

He’s like a child who has been caught eying the chocolate cake before the party.  “No, Mommy, I promise not to eat any.”   She leaves for a few minutes and comes back, and he has chocolate all over his face while still denying he ate any.

I can understand a functional immortal wanting new adventures.  He’s desperate to experience the universe through new eyes, and Bill seems as desperate to see the wonders of the universe with him.  

This desperation also drives Ashildr in “The Woman Who Lives.”  Since she is a mirror of the Doctor, we can look at her life as an example of what has happened to him.  She hated her immortal life, watching everyone she loved die, so she wanted adventure, at least in her younger days.  The Doctor, having seen so much, wants and needs to view life through his new companion.

So he’s addicted…

In “Mummy on the Orient Express,” Clara and the Doctor talked about addiction to life in the TARDIS.

> **CLARA** : Do you love it?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Love what?  
>  **CLARA** : I know it's scary and difficult, but do you love being the man making the impossible choice?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Why would I?  
>  **CLARA** : Because it's what you do, all day, every day.  
>  **DOCTOR** : It's my life.  
>  **CLARA** : Doesn't have to be. Is it like  
>  **DOCTOR** : Like what?  
>  **CLARA** : An addiction?  
>  **DOCTOR** : You can't really tell if something's an addiction till you try and give it up.  
>  **CLARA** : And you never have.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Let me know how it goes.

So he tries to give up life in the TARDIS, but he is addicted to it and has lied to Nardole about not going off-world.  I’m hoping to see more about this conflict in the next episode.  Will the Doctor show up in time for tea?  It certainly seems like tea may be delayed since the Doctor and Bill mistakenly end up at the 1814 Frost Fair for the next episode.  This is the march toward Ragnarök.  

####  **Decline & Fall of the Doctor: Darkness Before Light & Redemption**

Regardless of the Doctor’s oath and his conflict with Nardole, going to the planet is part of the turning point and rescue plan, as the horse (red arrow) in the image below shows.  He has to be the Star Whale, and we’ll examine this more in depth in a later chapter.   


Along the lines of foreshadowing the rescue, the Doctor tells Bill something important about the time period while they are on the planet:

> **DOCTOR** : Vardies. Tiny robots. Work in flocks. They're versatile, hard-working. Good at learning skills. The worker bees of the Third Industrial Revolution, probably just checking us out for security.

[_The Third Industrial Revolution_](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/the-third-industrial-revolution) is a book written by Jeremy Rifkin that pertains to themes regarding the Doctor.  According to the Barnes & Noble site, Rifkin’s book is a classic example of this:

> Books about saving the world are always a two-part confidence game. First comes the story of a calamitous decline and fall, and then the corresponding road to redemption is unveiled. For this type of book to work, its narrative picture must be painted in a chiaroscuro style — bathed in both darkness and light.

Here again, we have the themes of a calamitous decline and fall – of darkness – before the turning point and the light of redemption is achieved – a resurrection of a new identity.  

####  **“Ashes to Ashes”: David Bowie’s Decline & Fall Reference in “Smile” **

To further support these ideas and that the tragic story of _The Man Who Fell to Earth_ is actually part of what’s happening to the Doctor, he actually uses a line, shown below, from David Bowie’s song “Ashes to Ashes.”  The Doctor is trying to convince the Emojibot that he’s happy.   “I’m happy.  I hope that you are happy, too.”  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMThz7eQ6K0>  


"Ashes to Ashes" is a song written and recorded by David Bowie on his 1980 album _Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)_.  Here is yet another reference to rhymes.  According to Wikipedia:

> Interviewed in 1980, Bowie described the song as "very much a 1980s nursery rhyme. I think 1980s nursery rhymes will have a lot to do with the 1880s/1890s nursery rhymes which are all rather horrid and had little boys with their ears being cut off and stuff like that."  Years later, Bowie said that with "Ashes to Ashes" he was "wrapping up the seventies really" for himself, which "seemed a good enough epitaph for it."

Bowie was heavily addicted to drugs in the 70s.  “Ashes to Ashes” is about the turning point in his life, closing that chapter of his life before his resurrection into a new persona.  It’s very appropriate for what is coming for the Doctor.

Capaldi said he didn’t decide to end his run on DW until about halfway through filming Season 10, so all of this was still going to happen anyway.  It’s what this very long story has been about.

##  **The Disillusionment of Utopia & Another Influential Novel: _Erewhon_**

At first glance, the colony in “Smile” looks idyllic.  There’s a big wheat field, shown below, with 2 suns overhead and a futuristic city in the background.  (This was filmed in Valencia, Spain, in the amazing [City of Arts and Sciences](http://www.visitvalencia.com/en/what-to-visit-valencia/city-of-arts-and-sciences/what-is-the-city-of-arts-and-sciences-cac).)  Kezzia, one of the colonists, is out in the field with an Emojibot and the little Vardy microrobots that are pollinating the crop.  (BTW, this is the 3rd time episodes have opened in a wheat field.  The other 2 episodes are “Vincent and the Doctor” and “Let’s Kill Hitler.”)  


I found the artificial pollination odd because wheat is wind-pollinated, unless the swarm of robots was creating wind.  

Maybe this is the reference to the metaphorical butterfly effect where the flapping of the butterfly’s wings in England could affect the weather in Italy.  It really means that there’s a sensitive dependence on initial conditions, where something that seems small or even insignificant can have a major effect.  

In the case of the robots, no human seems to have foreseen the possibility that the robots could end up changing their initial programming and thinking for themselves, which might not be a good thing and have a major detrimental effect.

Anyway, Kezzia, at the beginning, is talking to Goodthing on the phone.  The name Goodthing, along with Hopeful, Sunshine, Steadfast, and Praiseworthy, remind me of the Puritan custom of naming their children after virtues.  This immediately evokes a symbol of a utopian society, which is what the colonists hoped for.  Of course, it doesn’t take long to realize this is a frightening dystopia where unhappy people are killed by robots.

####  **_Erewhon_** **: a Novel, at First Glance, about a Utopian Society**

The hope of a utopian society that we see in the colony has its basis in the novel _Erewhon_ by Samuel Butler, which was first published anonymously in 1872.   Butler describes a society that at first glance, like the DW colony, is a utopia.  He uses the fictional location of “Erewhon” (anagram of “nowhere”) to satirize Victorian England.  

Butler was the first to write about the possibility that machines might develop consciousness.  In fact, the protagonist of the novel marvels at why there are no machines in Erewhon.  The inhabitants recognize his watch, so he knows they have had machines.  However, the Erewhonians outlawed them because they see them as dangerous competitors in the struggle for existence.  Time strips away the protagonist’s illusions of utopia and eternal progress. 

BTW, the ship the DW colonists came on, logo shown below, is called _Erehwon_ , which is a reference to the novel.  


####  **Wishes, Disillusionment & a Reboot**

The utopian idea of getting wishes granted and then disillusionment with the wishes are themes of the Magic Haddock story.  “Magic Haddock” comes up 7 times in “Smile” with no explanation until near the end of the episode:

> **DOCTOR** [OC]: Once, long ago, a fisherman caught a magic haddock. The haddock offered the fisherman three wishes in return for its life. The fisherman said, "I'd like my son to come home from the war, and a hundred pieces of gold." The problem is magic haddock, like robots, don't think like people. The fisherman's son came home from the war in a coffin and the King sent a hundred gold pieces in recognition of his heroic death. The fisherman had one wish left. What do you think he wished for?  
>  (The colonists start waking up again.)  
>  **DOCTOR** : Some people say he should have wished for an infinite series of wishes, but if your city proves anything, it is that granting all your wishes is not a good idea.  
>  **BILL** : It's okay. It's not going to hurt you. Actually, it doesn't even know who you are.  
>  **STEADFAST** : What happened? What have you done?  
>  **DOCTOR** : In fact, the fisherman wished that he hadn't wished the first two wishes. You see, in a way, he pressed the reset button.  
>  **STEADFAST** : What the hell did you do?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Aren't you listening? I pressed the reset button. Every computer has one, and anyone can find it, especially if they happen to be a scary, handsome genius from space. I re-initialised the entire command structure, retaining all programmed abilities but deleting the supplementary preference architecture.

The Doctor is talking about himself as the fisherman being granted wishes.  “Aren’t you listening?” he tells Steadfast.  “I pressed the reset button.” 

Pressing the reset button is exactly akin to what we examined with the Great Work, and how at the Red stage the Doctor would realize everything in his life was a deception (basically its his disillusionment with a false utopia), and he would go about fixing things according to his newborn illuminated understanding.  He is resetting everything.

BTW, haddock is probably used because one thing I saw said that haddock are lucky in Scotland.  Also, haddock have a distinctive dark blotch above the pectoral fin, often described as a "thumbprint" or even the "Devil's thumbprint" or "St. Peter's mark."  Being associated with both the Devil and St. Peter suggests evil and good.  Yet, the fish is neither just as the Doctor suggested with the robots.

> **DOCTOR** : Slaughtered for their own good, because the Vardy think different. Like the magic haddock. Not bad, not good, just, just different.

“Be careful what you wish for” seems like an apt phrase, and it certainly applies with robots and the Magic Haddock.  However, it’s a common theme in many stories.

**"The Fisherman and His Wife"**

The Magic Haddock bears some resemblance to the Brothers Grimm German fairytale of "The Fisherman and His Wife," where the captured fish offers 3 wishes to spare its life.  The flounder in the story claims to be an enchanted prince.  While the fisherman lets the fish go, the fisherman’s wife isn’t happy and demands her husband ask for a nice house.  She isn’t content enough with the new house and makes her husband go back and be made a king.  Each time a wish is granted the sea becomes fiercer.  The fisherman goes back one more time to satisfy his wife, who wishes to command the sun, moon and heavens, and become equal to God.  The flounder ends up undoing all the wishes and returns the couple to their hovel.

 **“The Monkey’s Paw”**  


There are other fishy variants of this story.  However, the story that best matches the themes here is a story I read with my kids “The Monkey’s Paw.”  It’s a supernatural short story by author W. W. Jacobs first published in England in 1902.

According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey%27s_Paw): 

> The short story involves Mr. and Mrs. White and their adult son, Herbert. Sergeant-Major Morris, a friend who served with the British Army in India, introduces them to a mummified monkey's paw. An old fakir placed a spell on the paw, that it would grant three wishes to three separate men. The wishes are granted but always with hellish consequences, as punishment for tampering with fate. Morris tells the Whites of his comrade, who used his third wish to wish for death. Morris, also having had a horrific experience upon using the paw, throws the monkey's paw into the fire but Mr. White retrieves it. Before leaving, Morris warns Mr. White that if he does use the paw, then it will be on his own head.

Herbert tells his father he should wish for £200 to make the final payment on the house.  Herbert dies in a terrible machinery accident at work the next day, and the employer offers his parents £200.

> Ten days after their son's death and a week after the funeral, Mrs. White, almost mad with grief, asks her husband to use the paw to wish Herbert back to life. Reluctantly, he does so. Shortly afterward there is a knock at the door. As Mrs. White fumbles at the locks in an attempt to open the door, Mr. White, who had to identify his son's mutilated body, and who knows the corpse has been buried for more than a week, realizes that the thing outside is not the son he knew and loved, and makes his third wish.
> 
> The knocking suddenly stops. Mrs. White opens the door to find no one is there.

**The Ghost of Love & Wishes **  


In the stories above, we’ve seen how tampering with fate can bring terrible consequences, regardless of people’s morals or lack thereof.  While all of the characters in the Magic Haddock and “The Monkey’s Paw” are normal people with natural reactions and desires, these natural wishes cause their downfall because the fate that governs them is indifferent.  

They all ended up doing a reset of sorts.

So how does that affect the Doctor with the Ghost of Love and Wishes Gemstone?  Grant and the Doctor getting all of their wishes granted isn’t such a good idea.  I imagine the problem actually goes back to the Doctor’s childhood when he’s using powers he isn’t supposed to use.  After all, Harmony Shoal noticed Grant and came after him.

 **Bliss, “Gridlock” & _Doctor Faustus_**  


The concept of bliss being deadly comes back to the 10th Doctor and Martha story [“Gridlock,”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/29-3.htm) which takes place on New Earth in New New York.  There are 2 parts to the city: the upper city called the “over-city” where the Senate resides and the lower city, underneath and enclosed inside the city, called the “under-city” where the slums and motorway are.

The Doctor chases after Martha down in the motorway since she was kidnapped, but the Face of Boe tells Novice Hame to find the Doctor.  Hame, a catkind species and a member of the Sisters of Plenitude on the planet New Earth, shown below, finds and transports him against his will to the over-city to talk to the Face of Boe and to explain what happened.  We see skeletons in the Senate.  


> **HAME** : They died, Doctor. The city died.  
>  **DOCTOR** : How long's it been like this?  
>  **HAME** : Twenty four years.

Again, 24 years comes up.  

> **DOCTOR** : All of them? Everyone? What happened?  
>  **HAME** : A new chemical. A new mood. They called it Bliss. Everyone tried it. They couldn't stop. A virus mutated inside the compound and became airborne. Everything perished. Even the virus, in the end. It killed the world in seven minutes flat. There was just enough time to close down the walkways and the flyovers, sealing off the under-city. Those people on the motorway aren't lost, Doctor. They were saved.

Interestingly, the mood patches are marked with the emblem of the Sisters of Plentitude from the 1st New Earth story called “New Earth,” which featured Rose.  Once again, we have a connection to a sisterhood, which is especially suspicious since Amy’s soothsayer persona in “The Fires of Pompeii” has cat-like markings drawn on her face.   


> **DOCTOR** : So the whole thing down there is running on automatic.  
>  **HAME** : There's not enough power to get them out. We did all we could to stop the system from choking.

So were these people inside New Earth dying while the Doctor and River spent 24 years together?  Did the Doctor create a hell of his own making, like _Doctor Faustus_?  There were 3 women (3 witches), who were controlling Shakespeare.  So how much does the Doctor have free will in all of this?  He is one of the architects of the rescue plan, but still…

It’s the 24 years in “Gridlock” with the bliss here and in THORS that made me believe DW has been doing _Doctor Faustus_.  The Doctor is now repenting, as we see with his Magic Haddock story in “Smile.”  “The Pilot” episode agrees that the 12th Doctor, “Gridlock,” and the time away from being the Star Whale are connected. 

**“The Pilot” Reference to “Gridlock” & the _Expulsion from Paradise_**  


There actually is a reference to “Gridlock” in “The Pilot.”  In fact, I wanted to mention it in “The Pilot” chapters but ran out of time.  The reference ties back into the record label, “His Master’s Voice,” that we saw from “The Pilot.”  


In “Gridlock,” the motorists on the motorway sing "The Old Rugged Cross" when Sally the hologram tries to give them hope.  The song is a popular hymn written in 1912 by evangelist and song-leader George Bennard (1873–1958).

> **SALLY** : This is for all of you out there on the roads. We're so sorry. Drive safe.  
>  **CHOIR** : (singing) On a hill, far away, stood an old, rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. And I love that old cross, where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.  
>  (Everyone on the motorway joins in, including Martha, but excluding the Doctor.)

BTW, Bennard wrote the first verse of "The Old Rugged Cross" in Albion, Michigan, which is interesting, because Albion is the old name for Great Britian and has ties back to Merlin and the Arthurian Legend.  It also ties back to the hospital in “The Empty Child,” which is named Albion.

According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Rugged_Cross), the “The Old Rugged Cross” appeared on the parody work of a famous 15th century painting.

> In his art parody volume _Art Afterpieces_ , Ward Kimball created a variation on the painting _Expulsion from Paradise_ by the 15th-century artist Giovanni di Paolo, which shows God pointing at a large circle below him. Kimball centered the record label of _The Old Rugged Cross,_ as published by Victor, on the circle in the picture, complete with the trademark of Nipper (His Master's Voice).

The original painting by Paolo is actually titled _The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise_ , shown below.  


Anyway, Bill gives a rug to the Doctor for Christmas.  It seems like an odd gift.  However, it comes down to putting multiple pieces of information together to determine why.  In the image below Bill is carrying the rug to the Doctor’s office where there are crosses in the windows, and the “The Old Rugged Cross” appears along with the record label “His Master’s Voice” in the Doctor’s office and on a parody of _The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise_.  Therefore, the rug symbolizes not only “Gridlock” and “The Old Rugged Cross” but also the Doctor’s expulsion from paradise, or more accurately the expulsion from the illusion of paradise.  We are back to the Red stage of the Great Work.  


##  **End of the Parallel Universe: Apocalypse, Big Bang Again, Ragnarök**

Since the Doctor has woken up (I’m not convinced he is fully awake – it’s just how DW works – I have to see more evidence), rebooting Season 10 seems even more apropos.  The reboot of the series mirrors the Doctor doing a reset.  

We are marching toward the end of the universe.  The subject keeps coming up in different Doctor’s tenures because they are all related.  

However, the 2 best examples of what I think will, at least in part, happen is something akin to Donna’s Death in “Turn Left” ending her nightmarish parallel world, along with the end of the scary parallel world that was built around CAL in the Library.

####  **Donna’s Death in the Parallel World**

Because in “Turn Left” Donna turned right under the influence of the beetle on her back, instead of left, the Doctor died.  His death created a nightmarish world that was built around Donna.  Reality was bending around her.  However, her universe without the Doctor was affecting others.

> **ROSE** : Trust me. We need the Doctor more than ever. I've, I've been pulled across from a different universe because every single universe is in danger. It's coming, Donna. It's coming from across the stars and nothing can stop it.

Later, Rose revises her thinking:

> **ROSE** : I thought it was just the Doctor we needed, but it's the both of you. The Doctor and Donna Noble, together, to stop the stars from going out.

Alternate Donna travels back in time to the point of when she turned right, so there are 2 versions of her in the timeline.  Alternate Donna steps out in front of a van.  The accident causes Donna to turn left, thereby restoring the timeline and the Doctor’s life.

####  **Library**

CAL, too, has a whole world built around her.  It’s nightmarish, and the strain of saving so many people requires her to sleep and dream once she seals the Library.  People are trapped inside her mind for many years, which I believe is what happened in the Doctor’s case and “Gridlock.”   
In fact, the Face of Boe in “Gridlock” wires himself into the mainframe to save people, which is actually quite similar to River wiring herself into CAL’s computer to stop CAL from self-destructing and to save everyone.

After River is successful, almost everyone CAL saved to her mind gets released.  This was like doing a reboot and giving CAL a real mother.

####  **The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse**

The 10th Doctor had the end of the universe coming up in Donna’s last 2 episodes, “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End.”  Then, we saw the end of the universe come up again when the Master met Rassilon in the two-part episodes “The End of Time.”

However, the coming apocalypse was signaled in the 3 Ood episodes, especially “The Planet of the Ood.”  However, we can go back to the 1st Ood episode because it helps to support the image below.

The Ood in [“The Impossible Planet”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/28-8.htm) told Rose:

> **OOD** : The Beast and his Armies shall rise from the Pit to make war against God.

Below, not only do we see helmet lamps, but also there are 4 horses (red arrow) on the desk. Granted, there are not 4 colors of them, like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  However, I do believe this is what they represent because there are plenty of other supporting pieces of evidence for this.  


####  **The Big Bang Two & the 11th Doctor**

The 11th Doctor already rebooted the universe in the final episode of the 5th season, “The Big Bang.”  This whole scene below until the end of the episode has lots of holes in the plot, and what we thought we saw were just dreams when Amy woke up.

Reality was collapsing, and history was being erased because the TARDIS was at the center of an explosion that was happening at every point in history.  The Pandorica contained a restoration field, where the light inside, when it hit something, could restore lives and such.  So the Doctor planned to fly the Pandorica into the explosion, right into the heart of the fire.  The light from the Pandorica would explode everywhere at once, restoring history.

> **AMY** : So, what happens here? Big Bang Two? What happens to us?  
>  **RIVER** : We all wake up where we ought to be. None of this ever happens and we don't remember it.  
>  **AMY** : River, tell me he comes back, too.  
>  **RIVER** : The Doctor will be the heart of the explosion.  
>  **AMY** : So?  
>  **RIVER** : So all the cracks in time will close, but he'll be on the wrong side, trapped in the never-space, the void between the worlds. All memory of him will be purged from the universe. He will never have been born. Now, please. He wants to talk to you before he goes.
> 
> (The Pandorica reaches the Tardis. There is another explosion then everything reverses back to the start of the previous episode.)

It’s because of this scene that I’ve wondered if the 12th Doctor has been in the never-space, the Void between the worlds.  The 12th Doctor is the one who flew the TARDIS into the Void.

Anyway, rebooting the universe brings and end to the broken universe to start anew.

####  **The Frost Fair: the Immediate Prelude to** **Ragnarök**

Viking and Norse mythology references are especially common with the 12th Doctor because DW is headed for the Norse version of the Christian Apocalypse called Ragnarök.  However, the main difference is that Ragnarök is the end of one Norse mythical cycle before a new one begins.  It follows the birth, life, death, and rebirth cycle.  

The cosmos is destroyed in a war between the giants and the gods, which results in the deaths of many major figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Jörmungandr, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, Fenrir, and Loki).  The land, too, will be swallowed by water (does Heather streaming water signal this?), and darkness and silence will reign.  However, after a time, Earth will rise from the water and be resurrected, more fertile than before.

Jörmungandr, which we saw on the wall mural in “Under the Lake” and “Before the Flood,” is Loki’s son.  Fenrir, the wolf, is too.  He most likely has a connection to Bad Wolf and probably Fenric from Classic Who.  Hel is Loki’s daughter by the same giantess mother as the 2 sons listed here.  Hel seems like Missy because Hel is a being who presides over a realm of the same name, where she receives a portion of the dead.  Missy took charge of the Matrix data slice and named it the Nethersphere, among other names.  


There are a series of events that happen before Ragnarök, signaling its coming.  The first sign of Ragnarök will be Fimbulwinter, during which time three winters will arrive without a summer, and the sun will be useless.

 **Fimbulvetr & the Frost Fair**  


Fimbulvetr is the harsh winter that precedes the end of the world and puts an end to all life on Earth until a new cycle begins.  In the upcoming 3rd episode of the 10th season of DW, we’ll be seeing the 1814 Frost Fair, the last held on the River Thames.  

These fairs were held during the period known as the Little Ice Age.  Between the 15th century and early 19th century, there were 24 winters in which the Thames was recorded to have frozen over in London.  Because the Old London Bridge impeded the flow of the river, the slower water had a chance to freeze.

The ice in 1814 was thick enough to hold a Frost Fair, which included an elephant.  Therefore, 1814 is meant to be Fimbulvetr, preceding Ragnarök.

 **Broken Oaths: Another Sign of Ragnarök**  


Also leading up to Ragnarök are several other signs.  Traditional ways will disappear, and people will break their oaths and fall short of their expectations of one another on many occasions.  The Doctor is certainly breaking his oaths.


	2. The 12th Doctor, Rory & “The Girl Who Waited”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We'll look at various themes, mirroring, and other subtext. 
> 
> Season 10 spoiler warnings

## Wakey, wakey...

As we’ve been examining in the subtext, a face of the Doctor has been merged with technology (or something) and is a slave.  I’m using the visual of the Star Whale as the example to go by.  Since the Doctor has been waking up, it’s not surprising that waking up, technology, and slavery are at the heart of “Smile.” 

However, the Star Whale isn’t the only slave metaphor being attributed to the Doctor in this episode.  In fact, there is a big connection to the 11th Doctor story “The Girl Who Waited,” where we saw younger and older Amy.  The Doctor mirrors some visuals that we saw with Rory, which is quite cool to see.  The subtext says the Doctor and Rory are cyborgs. 

##  **Smile: Overreliance on Technology & Social Media**

In this episode, there is a cautionary tale about the overreliance on technology, especially social media.  In fact, in the “Inside Look, Smile” segment, Steven Moffat echoes concerns that I’ve had for a very long time.  He says, “I think there are many danger in social media.”  He then continues, “You can’t depersonalize human interaction.  Because, for so many people, it takes away your empathy and your sympathy.  In a way, social media turns us all into robots.”

Human emotions are boiled down to emojis that people wear, which actually seems to me to be related to what we examined in a chapter on “The Pilot.”  The Doctor feels emotions a lot deeper than he wants to admit.  This time, we get to see his emotions, as he’s wearing them literally on his back.  

“Smile,” too, has a deeper meaning put forth previously that machines instilled with artificial intelligence could become sentient slaves, although the humans in “Smile” don’t recognize them that way until the end.  Overreliance on them could spell disaster.

####  **“Hell Bent”**

Anyway, overreliance comes back to something the 12th Doctor said in [“Hell Bent.”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/35-12.html)

> **CLARA** : Why would a computer need to protect itself from the people who made it?  
>  **DOCTOR** : All computers do that in the end. You wait until the internet starts. Oh, that was a war!

While the robots in “Smile” aren’t protecting themselves against the people who made them at the start, they seem to believe they are helping humans and protecting humanity as a whole.  It’s more like cutting off a gangrenous finger to save the hand.  

Of course, after the humans shoot one of the Emojibots, the other Emojibot does want to protect itself and signals rage and revenge.  The Vardy turn on the humans, like what the Doctor said would happen in “Hell Bent.”  Here’s the beast of rage and revenge that keeps popping up in episodes with the Ood. Interesting that the Doctor did a memory wipe to nip that in the bud.

####  **“The Girl Who Waited” & Rorybot**

The Emojibots and Vardy are operating in a similar way to the Handbots in [“The Girl Who Waited”](http://www.chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/32-10.htm) that try to eliminate bacteria from one’s body as a gesture of kindness.  Like the Emojibots and Vardy, the Handbots are trying to help; however, their kindness can kill humans. 

In this episode, Amy gets stuck in a faster time stream, living at a kindness facility for 36 years while the Doctor and Rory try to figure out how to get her out.  She says she goes in there and dies because her life has been a living hell of just trying to survive.  Rory swore to protect her.

> **RORY** : You being here is wrong. For a single day, an hour, let alone a lifetime. I swore to protect you. I promised.

Here’s a reference to an oath that Rory made to Amy, and it’s clear that “Smile” is heavily referencing this episode, so Amy is waiting.  And there are 2 versions of her: young Amy and one who is 36 years older.  Is Amy in the Vault, like we saw in the Pandorica?

Interestingly, in “Smile” the Doctor makes a strange remark about ages.

> **DOCTOR** : Question. We've been here for ages. Why are they attacking us now?

“Ages” can be taken 2 ways.  The Doctor could just be using it as a figurative expression.  However, he could literally mean it, which is how I’m taking it because of what is happening.  It doesn’t appear that way in the text, but we are seeing a follow on to “The Beast Below,” which we’ll examine in a bit.  He’s the Star Whale who has been there for ages, but that’s not all that is signaled here.  Rory, the 12th Doctor, and Rorybot all have a connection.

Here’s Rory in the circular building with multiple Handbots coming toward him in “A Girl Who Waited.”  


The 12th Doctor’s scene is almost a mirror image of Rory’s.  Below we see the Doctor on the opposite side of the image of the circular building.  However, there is only one Emojibot.  


The Rorybot that Amy made from a Handbot has a drawn-on face, unlike the other Handbots.  Rorybot is reminiscent of the Emojibots.  However, Amy cut off Rorybot’s hands, disarming him, since they could put her to sleep before injecting her with possibly deadly medicine to kill the unauthorized bacteria Amy is carrying.   


##  **Rory, the Doctor & Sentient Robot Mirrors**

Not only does the subtext in both “The Girl Who Waited” and “Smile” suggest that Rory and the Doctor, respectively, have sentient robot mirrors, but also the dialogue suggests this.

####  **“The Girl Who Waited”**

Dialogue and imagery show Rory mirroring the Rorybot:

In the image below, Rory, who is a prisoner signified by the chains (red arrow), follows Amy into the place she has made her home at the Two Streams Facility.  A Rorybot is looking out the window.  


When Rorybot turns to face Rory, he realizes the bot has a face drawn on it.

> **RORY** : Oh.  
>  **AMY** : Don't worry about him. Sit down, Rory.

Interestingly, DW chose the camera angle below, so it fools us.  Rory sits down with a chain (red arrow) above him.  However, we don’t see what the bot is doing from this angle.  It looks like it is standing.  


However, the camera angle changes, so we see this scene more from Rory’s point of view in the image below.  Rorybot really is sitting, too.  So whom was Amy telling to sit?  Interestingly, Rorybot is actually sitting on a Circle in the Square.  Therefore, Rorybot is an integrated being and has sentience.   
 

As Rorybot and Rory turn to look at each other, mirroring each other, there is a whirring sound.  Switching camera angles means DW wants us to see that Rory’s head is turning as the whirring sound occurs, so we get the idea of Rory being a mirror of Rorybot.  

This really isn’t that surprising since Rory is a plastic being in the season before.  How did he all of a sudden change in this 6th season to become real?  After the Doctor rebooted the universe in the finale from Season 5 “The Big Bang,” what we saw was a dream.

This all suggests that Rory’s body is plastic, but his mind and memories have been uploaded to Rorybot.

> **RORY** : You named him after me?  
>  **AMY** : Needed a bit of company.  
>  **RORY** : So he's like your pet? 

Amy nods in response.

> **RORY** : Is it safe?  
>  (Amy gets the remains of her lipstick from a box and looks at it.)  
>  **AMY** : Yep. I disarmed it.  
>  **RORY** : How? Oh, you disarmed it.  
>  **AMY** : Oh, don't get sentimental, it's just a robot. You'd have done the same.

I believe the 12th Doctor would take offense at Amy’s last line.

The other scene where Rory mirrors a Handbot is near the end of the episode.  Rory and the 2 Amys are confronted by Handbots, and younger Amy gets put to sleep by one of them.  Getting angry, Rory smashes the _Mona Lisa_ over the Handbot’s head.  Then, oddly he stoops over like the Handbot he attacks, mirroring its position in the image below.  Not only that, but also he has a frame behind him.  He is the Handbot, and he’s fighting himself, just like he was fighting himself not to shoot Amy in “The Pandorica Opens.”  


####  **“Smile,” the Doctor & Emojibot Mirrors**

While there is dialogue especially near the beginning of the episode that suggests a face of the Doctor is part machine, I want to show you the visuals first since a picture is worth 1000 words.

The Emojibot mirrors show up at the end of the episode once the colonists are enraged that the Emojibots and Vardy have killed other colonists.

Here’s Steadfast below in a camera angle that suggests he is pointing the gun at the Doctor.  Because we know that Steadfast really is pointing the gun at the Emojibot, the camera seems to want us to see something different.  This is subtext that suggests that the Doctor is the Emojibot.  This image does leave a bit of doubt because the Emojibot is in the image.  However, the camera angle moves slightly and makes the intent clear in the following image.  


The Emojibot in the image above is now gone in this image below.  There is no ambiguity any longer.  In the subtext, Steadfast in the subtext is really pointing the gun at the Doctor because a face of the Doctor is an Emojibot in this episode.  In fact, this episode, in part, is about the Doctor waking up and realizing what he is.  


Shortly, the boy becomes upset as he has no idea where he mother is.  The two Emojibots on either side of the boy change from happy faces to frowns.  


The camera then zooms in on the boy’s hand as the Emobjibot is reaching out for it.  The same thing happens with the other Emojibot.  The reason to zoom in here is to make another reference to “The Girl Who Waited.”  Amy cut off Rorybot’s hands because they could restrain her by putting her to sleep before the face of the Handbot opened to reveal the possibly deadly injection system.  Here, the Emojibots seem to have suction cups on their hands.  While the hands don’t put people to sleep, they serve the similar purpose of subduing people, so the Vardy can kill them.  


After a bit, the camera once again changes to show Steadfast pointing the weapon at the Doctor in the subtext.  


Then, the camera angle changes to the point of view of the targeted Emojibot, and Steadfast fires.  Sparks fly toward the Doctor’s side.  The Emojibot falls to the floor.  


We see a few images from different angles before the remaining Emojibot’s face switches between expressions in the image below.  The Doctor believes the bot may be experiencing rage and revenge, which comes back to the subconscious beast in “Planet of the Ood,” where the Ood were displaying anger and revenge against their human enslavers and torturers.  The Emojibot is summoning the Vardy, which begin to attack the humans.  


This response gets the Doctor thinking.

> **DOCTOR** : The Vardy are identifying as under attack, which means they identify as a species. They are self-aware. They…

Interestingly, the Emojibot’s face changes to a light bulb before the Doctor finishes his sentence.  


> **DOCTOR** : …they're alive!

In fact, the camera angle changes to show the Doctor’s emoji.  (Love the eyebrow!)  The Doctor is a little slow here because the Doctor’s emoji hasn’t changed yet.  


Finally, the Doctor’s emoji changes, so he’s now mirroring the Emojibot.  


####  **“Smile” Dialogue that Suggests a Face of the Doctor is Part Machine**

**The Walkway of the City**  
Bill and the Doctor enter the city.  


> (In the open air, with the swarm overhead.)  
>  **BILL** : What are they? Alien birds?

I got the feeling Bill mentioned birds to jog the Doctor’s memory about Clara because the Vardies didn’t look like birds to me.  I thought they were insects initially.

> **DOCTOR** : Vardies. Tiny robots. Work in flocks. They're versatile, hard-working. Good at learning skills. The worker bees of the Third Industrial Revolution, probably just checking us out for security. 

It’s interesting the Doctor uses the term “flocks” while also using the term “worker bees.”  That’s odd, like quite a bit of the Doctor’s dialogue.  We find out later that the term “flocks” doesn’t refer to birds but to a shepherd and flock relationship of humans and robots (the livestock).  In fact, the Ood were considered livestock.

> (The little robot has a slight frown.)  
>  **BILL** : These are robots? These are disappointing robots.  
>  **DOCTOR** : That's a very offensive remark. Don't make personal remarks like that. 

Interestingly, the Doctor is taking Bill’s “disappointing robots” remark as a personal offense.  This is particularly significant given the whole sentient robot theme.  It’s the next part that is even more interesting. 

> **BILL** : Er, you can't offend a machine.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Typical wet brain chauvinism.  
>  (The robot face changes to open hands for eyes and a grin.)

“Wet brain chauvinism” is a really interesting phrase.  Later, after Bill and the Doctor find the spaceship, the Doctor tells Bill about the architecture:

> **DOCTOR** : Ah, this was built by humans, that was built by Vardy. Wet brains, dry brains.

So the Doctor defines human brains as wet and robots’ brains as dry.  Interestingly, Dr. Sim’s brain while looking human, might metaphorically be considered dry in TRODM because it wasn’t in fluid, like the other brains.  And Dr. Sim is a mirror of the Doctor.

Here is another odd conversation.  

> **BILL** : Ow! Your voice just came out in my ear. I mean, I know voices go into ears but this was like  
>  **DOCTOR** : We have been fitted with some kind of communication device that is using our own nervous system as hardware. We've just downloaded an upgrade for our ears.  
>  **BILL** : I'll never lose my phone again. I'll never run out of battery again!  
>  **DOCTOR** : Welcome to paradise.  
>  **BILL** : Hang on, is there a mute button though? What if you're in the loo?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Who needs loos? There's probably an app for that.  
>  **BILL** : So, where is everyone? Don't tell me we've come halfway across the universe and they've all gone out. We should've texted first or something.

The Doctor most likely has unlimited regeneration energy, so he is a battery.  And now, he and Bill have super-hearing, like Grant had with the Doctor in TRODM.  Does this carry over to other episodes, or does this just work here?

The Doctor then says, “Welcome to paradise,” which is interesting because “Paradise” is a Missy-term for the Nethersphere, which is the Matrix data slice.

Even more oddly, the Doctor says, “Who needs loos?”  It’s really hard to ignore this question.  This all screams that the Doctor is a being of pure consciousness inside something like Rorybot or an Emojibot or the Vardy.

**Author's Note:**

> I want to make this meta series as clear as possible, so if it’s not, please let me know.
> 
> Check out my [meta archive on Tumblr](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/meta-archive) for images


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